The “4,000-year hockey stick” scare is over, after a shelf life that did not last a full month. The warmist-fawning media used the 4,000-year hockey stick to create one of the most intense global warming scares in recent memory, but it quickly died with a thud – just like so many asserted global warming scares before it.

A little-known scientist who had only recently completed his Ph.D. published a paper claiming proxy temperature reconstructions showed a 4,000-year decline in global temperatures until the twentieth century. The paper claimed the 4,000-year decline abruptly ended in the twentieth century as recent warmth obliterated the 4,000 years of cooling and placed the Earth at its warmest in the 4,000-year record. Moreover, the asserted rapid temperature spike during the past century appeared to be the sharpest in 11,000 years.

While the alarmists and their media allies predictably jumped off the cliff like lemmings before taking a closer look at the paper, its data, and its methodology, scientists quickly discovered major flaws in the paper. Most of the proxy data came from ocean beds rather than the terrestrial surface and were less reliable than other available proxy data. Much of the terrestrial proxy data came from previously discredited proxies manipulated by global warming activist Michael Mann. Much more reliable proxy data strongly contradicted the new paper’s assertions.

Climate expert Ross McKitrick this week in the Financial Post published perhaps the best summary of the spectacular death of the 4,000-year hockey stick paper. The final death blow of the paper, as McKitrick reports, is the author’s admission, “[The] 20th-century portion of our paleotemperature stack is not statistically robust, cannot be considered representative of global temperature changes, and therefore is not the basis of any of our conclusions.”

Wow! According to the author of the paper himself, the very portion of the paper alarmists and the media have been proclaiming as the climatic equivalent of the Zombie Apocalypse “cannot be considered representative of global temperature changes.” So all we are left with is a temperature reconstruction that shows temperatures by 1900 A.D. had sunk to their coldest levels since the last ice age epoch ended 11,000 years ago. Perhaps maybe a little twentieth century global warming may have been just what the planet needed after all.

Global warming alarmist James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute, announced he will retire and then sue federal and state governments for not imposing more draconian climate change restrictions. Explaining his motivation for leaving a job paying $180,000 per year plus extremely generous benefits, Hansen said, “As a government employee, you can’t testify against the government.”

Global sea ice remained above the long-term average throughout March. By early April, the global sea ice anomaly approached its highest level since early 2009. Northern Hemisphere sea ice is currently slightly below the long-term average. Southern Hemisphere sea ice is substantially above the long-term average.

Global temperatures during March were 0.18 degrees Celsius above the 30-year average, which was no change from February. The February and March temperatures show the pause in global warming, now more than a decade long, continues without any sign of accelerating warming.

The percentage of Americans who say global warming is a “very serious” problem dropped six points since October according to a Pew Research Poll. Currently, only 33 percent of Americans say global warming is a very serious problem, the poll reports. Another 32 percent say global warming is a “somewhat serious” problem.

Roughly three of eight Americans believe global warming is a hoax, Public Policy Polling reports. Asked the question, “Do you believe global warming is a hoax, or not?” 37 percent said yes, 51 percent said no, and 12 percent were not sure.